The Ghost Town of Vanport Oregon

Vanport Oregon, sometimes referred to as Vanport City or Kaiserville was a city of wartime public housing between the contemporary Portland city boundary and the Columbia River. It was destroyed in the 1948 Columbia River flood and not rebuilt. It sat on what is currently the site of Delta Park, the Portland International Raceway, and Heron Lakes Golf Course.

Built in 110 days in 1942, Vanport was always meant to be a temporary housing project, a superficial solution to Portland’s wartime housing shortage. At its height, Vanport housed 40,000 residents, making it the second largest city in Oregon, a home to the workers in Portland's shipyards and their families. A noisy, 24-hour city, it also offered progressive services, including grade schools that operated year round, 24-hour day care for preschool children and the first black school teachers in Oregon. The housing was segregated: blacks were steered towards certain parts of town, whites to another — but the schools were integrated. Children of all races learned together and played together. They even had a Movie Theater and this a picture taken from the Oregon Historical Society along with what it looks like today.

This is what is left today of the movie theater.

An old bolt that held the theater chairs in place.

After the war, Vanport lost more than half of its population, dropping to about 18,500, as many wartime workers left the area. However, there was also an influx of returning World War II veterans. In order to attract veterans and their families, the Housing Authority of Portland opened a college named the Vanport Extension Center; the school would eventually be renamed Portland State University. Portland State University is all that is left of Vanport, Oregon.

On a Sunday afternoon in May 1948, it disappeared completely — destroyed by a catastrophic flood. That spring, heavy snowfall in the mountains and sudden warm temperatures sent a torrent of water down the Columbia River. The people of Vanport were assured that the dikes would hold. But on Memorial Day weekend, one of the dikes collapsed. Vanport City disappeared under water in less than two hours. The catastrophic regional flood produced a sea of refugees – many with few options for permanent housing.

Pictures taken from the Oregon Historical Society.

If you want to come here you can use a phone app, I prefer Waze, and enter N Vanport Rd. Portland Oregon. If you take this road it will dead end and this is the location of were the main town of Vanport was located. You will see some signs here that talks about the history of Vanport.

Other than the signs displaying the history of Vanport this is what it looks like today.

If you turn down the road that leads to Portland International Raceway you will see an open field on your right and this is part of Delta Park and also part of where Vanport once stood. When you walk across the open field you will come to a swamp and there is also a pretty mellow hiking trail here.

I spent the day here talking to Terry. The people that work at Portland International Raceway call her "The Mayor of Vanport". Her parents lived here and she is currently living here and functions as the groundskeeper for the Raceway. If you do come here and want to talk to her be prepared because she will talk to you all day about Vanport. It was an amazing conversation and I loved the history lesion. If you do want to talk to her the easiest way is to go to the Racetrack entrance and ask the security guard that your here to inquire about Vanport. Generally they will call Terry and let you pass if there are no events going on. Here are some artifacts that she has found while exploring the Ghost Town.

At the end of the day I spent some time in the bleachers of the International Raceway and wondered how many people come here to watch the races and don't realize you are now in an abandoned ghost town. To even go out to Heron Lakes Golf Course and playing a round of golf not having a clue that Vanport use to be here.

I never really liked history when I was in high school but I find myself drawn to it so much as I get older. It's amazing how I start to research something and open other rabbit holes. This was one of those rabbit holes when I was doing research on the old Janzen Beach Amusement Park, this will be another post.